Chapter 3

After dinner and a lengthy discussion covering cell phones, iPhones, iPods, and gas fireplaces, Rogers and Liv settled into a comfortable silence. Rogers sat in an armchair, staring out at the city, and Liv sat across from him, studying him. He turned and met her eyes.

"Yes?" She cocked her head, expecting yet another question about the Internet.

"In the studio. Something piqued my curiosity."

She nodded at him to go on.

"Why do you have some of those paintings covered?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew he had hit a sore spot. Her face turned pale and she tensed, as if ready for a fight. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean – "

"Don't worry about it." She said, voice strained. "I'm tired, and we have an early start tomorrow to start your training."

"Training?"

"More like rehabilitation. Good night, Captain."

And with that, she got up and left.

She kept him busy for the next few days – so busy, in fact, he wondered if she was trying to curb any more questions about herself – about why she woke up screaming most nights. He didn't mind too much though, sometimes she wore him out enough to chase away his own nightmares. She had him read books about the history of technology, look at the evolution of photography, and introduced him to both the Predator and the computer.

"Fury was very specific about what he wanted you to know," she said three days in when he ventured to ask how she came up with this stuff. "but its predominately military in nature. Things like advances in science and shifts in the culture are completely left off the list. So I took the liberty of adding those in." she said with a sly grin.

Rogers shook his head with a rueful smile. He felt like a student again, cramming information into his head as fast as he could.

"Are we working on a time limit or something here? I feel like I'm drowning in books." He said mildly, glaring pointedly at the stack of books by his chair.

Liv chuckled. "Not officially, but Fury won't tolerate you being holed up here for very long. I want you prepared, because in this age, nothing is safe." She said darkly.

"I disagree." Said an unfamiliar voice. Rogers flew to his feet and ended up in a defensive stance before he realized what happened. He glanced at Liv, who had half-risen from her seat and shook her head almost imperceptibly, before relaxing.

"Steady there, soldier. Take it easy on the frozen limbs, would ya?"

Rogers didn't move from his position between Liv and the stranger. "Who are you?"

"Oh, you know, only the owner of this tower, CEO of Stark enterprises, genius, inventor – "

"He's Tony Stark." Liv cut in. "Tony, you already know about Steve, I'm sure."

Tony had meandered over to the kitchen and was helping himself to some of Liv's wine. "Fascinating, this Hydra stuff. I'd love to get my hands on some of those batteries they made. You know, I never seem to have enough compact power sources for-"

"Steve, my dad was very close to Tony's dad. We've known each other since we were infants."

Which would explain why she continually talked over the man. Steve held out his hand to Tony, who by now had made his way to the sitting area, wineglass in hand.

"Pleasure to meet you."

"Yup." Steve raised his eyebrows as Tony embraced Liv, saying "Been too long since I've seen your gorgeous face round here. Fury keeping you busy with his boys?" He asked with a wink.

Liv crossed her arms and eyed Tony in a mischievous way. "Why Tony, that was almost polite. Pepper's been working wonders with you."

Tony shrugged self-consciously. "Maybe. She's…well, she's.." He trailed off in a manner completely counter to his earlier behavior.

Liv smiled. "You drop by for any particular reason?"

Tony held up the wine "This," pointed to Rogers "That," and pointed at Liv "and you, of course. I also wanted a look at your house system –"

"No. You are not ever installing a house system in this flat. And you know why? Because computers can be hacked."

Tony gave her a skeptical look. "Mmm, I don't think so. Let me see, well, Stark Tower's never been hacked, my house has never been hacked – "

"And all that is irrelevant compared to what I've seen working with Fury. We've been over this."

"Yes, but – "

"No."

Rogers cleared his throat. "Did you want to take a seat?"
They turned in sync and he swallowed a laugh.

"Yes, I'd love to –"

"No, he's really – "

Liv glared at Tony. "No, you have a date with Pepper in twenty minutes and the traffic's terrible."

Tony looked startled. "How did you know?"

"What was I saying about computer security earlier? Oh, that's it's awful. Thanks for the offer of a house system but I'm set." She said with a satisfied grin as she plucked the wine glass out of his hands. "Good night!"

Rogers let out a breath when the door shut.

"He gets people on edge pretty fast." Liv remarked.

"You can say that again."